Internet of Things - Three Popular Development Boards

The Internet of Things (IoT) is developing at a rapid pace, as a result of the availability of small, inexpensive computing hardware. IoT development boards combine micro-controllers, processors, wireless chips, and other components in a pre-built, ready-to-program package. Development boards come in various configurations and here are three popular ones.

Arduino Uno

The Arduino UNO is an open-source microcontroller development board based on the ATmega328P(datasheet) which has:

14 digital input/output pins

6 analog inputs

A 16 MHz quartz crystal,

A USB connection,

A power jack,

An ICSP header and

A reset button

The Arduino Software (IDE) runs on Windows, Macintosh OSX, and Linux operating systems. The Arduino IDE supports the languages C and C++ using special rules of code structuring.

Applications:

Few applications of the Arduino Uno boards are:

Robotics and Control Systems

Home and Industry Automation

Traffic Light Countdown Timer

Underground Cable Fault Recognition

Controlling of Electrical Appliances using IR

Parking Lot Counter

Weighing Machines

Medical Instrument

Emergency Light for Railways

Auto Intensity Control of Street Lights

Biotechnology

Agriculture

Pros:

Inexpensive

Cross-platform

Simple, clear programming environment

Open source and extensible software and hardware

Large support of community

Cons:

Memory limitations

Less powerful

Processing power is weaker than the microcontroller

Requires effort to accomplish some tasks such as scheduling and database storage

Raspberry Pi 3

Raspberry Pi is a fully functioning credit card-sized computer, which runs on a customized Debian Linux called Raspbian. Like a computer, a Pi has a memory, processor, USB ports, audio output, a graphic driver for HDMI output.

Pi is a powerful platform based on a Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with a:

2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor

1GB RAM

Raspberry Pi 3 is equipped with:

4 GHz WiFi 802.11n

Bluetooth 4.1

10/100 Ethernet port

Advantages of Raspberry Pi over Arduino:

Raspberry Pi

Arduino

Multitasking and suitable for complex projects

Runs one program at a time, used for repetitive work

Suitable for software projects

Suitable for hardware projects

No limiting to programming language

Limited to Arduini, C/C++

Built-in Ethernet port for networking

Need to connect external hardware and implement coding

Act as a server and communicate to other computers, connected devices.

Written by
Hiten Mukesh Shah
Hiten Mukesh Shah has been with Trigent Software for the last 12 years and he now works as Senior Business Analyst. With over 15 years of experience, Hiten has strong expertise in business analysis, software testing, quality assurance and project management.